Treating Genius
by Nizzy
Summary: A new league is being formed. When a murderous genius proves to yield potential, he is hired. Though his violent nature creates danger for everyone. CH 4 UP
1. Default Chapter

A.N.- This new character is based off of the "Sherlock Homes" stories. He is in none of them, because I made him up. However, in this story, the criminal mastermind has observational skills that rival Homes, in fact Homes is the one that solved his case. He is in an insane asylum in this chapter, because…well…he's crazy. It might be confusing at first, but just go with the flow and things will unfold themselves.

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"Through strong, painful impressions we capture the patient's attention, accustom him to unconditional obedience, and indelibly imprint in his heart the feeling of necessity. The will of his superior must be such a firm, immutable law for him that he will no more resist it than he would rebel against the elements."

— Johann Christian Reil (who first coined the word psychiatry) 1810****

The stare was blank. He couldn't have possibly been looking at anything. Everything was inside of him now, there was no personality on the outside anymore. A frowning, lolling mouth, bottomless gray eyes, it was a completely unreceptive expression. Even in the cell, which had no light source, he was bound up in chains. Manacles, which had grown looser with his thinning figure, hung around his neck, ankles, and wrists.

He could hear the screaming of one inmate, far down at the end of the ward. He was being dragged along the floor. Benjamin could almost feel the man's tears on his own face. As three guards and two nurses accompanied the squirming patient past Ben's cell, his gaze moved upward.

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Three successful lobotomies so far…soon to be four.

There was no emotion attached to the thought, just knowledge that after the procedure that man would never be the same again. He would be half of a man, with half of his mind missing. This was supposed to cure insanity?

Long after the screaming died, Benjamin's mind still wandered to the expression of the patient. Blind fear. His eyes were impossibly wide, mouth stretched open in animal cries, fighting with a hopeless force. Ben had once been like that. There was a time when he fought blindly against the treatments.

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Why was I fighting it? I don't remember…I can't remember a lot of things right now. I have no sense of time.

The echoing sound of metal being scraped against metal screamed through the air as the latch was being undone. Two guards, the resident doctor, and a nurse entered Benjamin's cell; he didn't look up. His matted mess of white blonde hair covered his empty eyes from view. Before the guards made to retrieve him from the floor, the doctor spoke, addressing the nurse. His voice was calming, optimistic.

"I'm very pleased with his progress. I think that all psychosis should be relieved after one more round of electroconvulsive treatment. See? See how his previously violent behavior has become a quiet peaceful demeanor? I'm telling you, this new treatment will soon be used all over the world."

With that, the guard unlocked each thick metal ring around Benjamin's limbs and they clanked open onto the floor. The skin was perpetually bruised where the heavy metal hung from him, but he didn't feel that anymore. All he felt was his brain denying his thoughts, his sense of reality altered until being quick and alert was not an option. The guard lifted him onto his bare feet. He didn't struggle, but it took a moment to get his footing. And with his head sagging to the side, he was lead out of the cell and into another room.

Once strapped into the chair, a sort of hat was placed atop his head. There were wires protruding from it, and a clean silvery panel that descended from the front was pushed flat against his forehead. With the confident voice of the doctor in the background and the clack of a switch being pulled, Benjamin fell into numbness.


	2. Treatment

The electric waves blasted through his forehead for the fifth time since he arrived at the asylum for the criminally insane. It made a high screaming sound in his ears. There was also a crackling sound as thousands and thousands of brain cells burned on the spot. His eyes rolled up into his head and he convulsed, epileptically. The leather straps stretched and rattled as his legs and arms shook in a spastic manner.

When it was over, after minutes had seemed to stretch into hours, Benjamin was as blind and unintelligible as ever. Like a puppet, unable to move on his own, he was lifted from the chair by the nurse and one guard. His legs were slack underneath his frail form. The skeletal figure was hardly a burden to drag across the floor back to its cage. He fell to the ground instantly, and slipped into restless sleep.

_The room was full of students, each obediently silent at their desk. As the teacher slipped the perfect test onto Benjamin's desk, leaning over him, she seemed impossibly tall. She looked over her thick glasses at him._

"I'd like to see you after class, Benjamin."

Her voice echoed as if in a cave, foreboding. He felt the coldness of all the other students' laughter, and felt so small in his little wooden chair. They didn't know anything. They would all pay one day. They would bleed for him one day.

Suddenly they were gone and he was left to the wrath of his teacher. She told him that he must have cheated on the exam and demanded to know where he had gotten the answers. He explained helplessly that it wasn't his fault that he was smart. She threatened to beat him, claiming him a little liar. Finally she grew stories taller and menacing as anything. She grabbed a giant wooden paddle with the holes in it and held it at ready over him.

"I didn't cheat!!!"

His eyes flew open. As he moved to shield himself from the paddle, his arms stopped short, pulling tight the chains. Panting, he frantically searched his surroundings. He was back in the cell; it had been a nightmare. Oh god…why couldn't he remember what day it was?

The sweat chilled over his body, making him shiver in the useless inmate uniform. His mind forced him to be calm, not letting him think too hard. Every time his eyes darted to a spot on the stone walls, they took forever to focus. He moved to wipe his face, leaning over so the chains would reach, and found his hand weak and slack. He was dumb and useless, not able to fully control his limbs. They still tingled from the electricity that had been flying through them.

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The year is 1887. I'm in London. No. I'm in, Tuesday, wait! No, Antarctica. Soon I'll be teaching a biochemistry class at Oxford. But they don't deserve my superior knowledge. No one does. Not even God! It's dark in here. By the 13% increase in humidity and decrease in temperature, I'd say it is about, wait. 15 in the morning? Yes, It's nice here. I think I'm staying forever.

His thoughts went on like this. Ramblings making their way into his desperate attempts to make sense. If nothing else, the science and math would keep him sane. Yes, it must. By now hundreds of formulas and experiments had been drawn onto the walls of the cell with a piece of coal. The sight of it was unnerving. One man had taken the time to meticulously plot out intensely complex mathematical equations and still unproven scientific theories. It was amazing, disturbingly amazing.

Feeling feverish and unnaturally cold, he drew himself into a little ball as far as the chains would allow. Holding himself tight, trying to capture any body heat left, he fell into unconsciousness once more, a few more thoughts crossing his mind; the ones it would allow at least.

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You're insane, remember? They're helping you get better. They know what's best for you and these treatments are working to make you better. What did I do? I broke the rules. What day is it?


	3. A Visitor

16 days since his last treatment and he still felt a haze over his mind, though it was clearing with each rising thought and idea. His body had emaciated so far that almost ever bone holding it together poked out, begging for food. His ribs expanded against the thin shirt, making their deep valleys in his white skin. His white-blonde hair had grown past his jaw and was matted and curled in a mess that made him look even more haphazard.

_I need books. They won't give me books. The man of god says my knowledge is unholy and my books should be burned. Don't they see?! They know nothing, they cling to the one book that will continue to give them nothing! The Bible was created to keep man stupid. Hahaha! That robed fool says that he is praying for me, that he will ask his god to free me from this bondage of insanity. He knows nothing! The only bondage I'm in is these chains!_

"They know nothing!"

Infuriated, he shook the chains violently, pulling at them. They wailed and rattled, but didn't give way. He screamed then, hoarsely and exasperated. Surely this must be hell. A place where control his had over what they don't understand.

"I am a genius!"

His voice shook, screaming at no one. He punched at the air, ignoring the pain it caused his wrists. The chains clattered and squeeked tight, the slack being tugged away. He didn't honestly believe he'd brake them, but it was the only thing he could do. Did they expect him to stay obedient forever?

"Benjamin!"

He started, looking up. His eyes widened, and he gasped.

"Marie? Marie?!"

His sister stood outside of his cell, accompanied by a nurse and two guards. She had grown prettier since the last time he had seen her, which was at his trial. Her dark blonde hair was tied up into a neat braid, and she wore a green dress that fit the new styles coming in with the new century. Marie had, like Benjamin, been blessed with never-ending knowledge and brain so quick it frightened most. She hid it well though, and instead of killing 56 people like Benjamin had, she smiled and nodded her way through medical school and became one of the first female doctors. She, of course, already had the capacity for the occupation by the age of 10. She also, unlike Ben, knew that intelligence scared people. She said only what she must, and hid the rest of her knowledge away, bringing it back out only in a situation where it was absolutely necessary. Ben had flaunted it, publicly equating dense mathmatical problems in his mind like a machine. It amazed people; it scared people.

And when Benjamin performed murders so complex, each subliminally linked to the next; when there were just enough clues to lead a frustrated Homes to the next crime scene; when at victim 56 he sat calmly at the scene, giving himself up explaining that his only motive was "ridding the world of the hopelessly dumb", there was nothing to do but label him insane. He was 16 at the time. Now after a year and a half in the asylum, now of all times, Marie chose to visit him.


	4. I'm Not Insane

Marie sat in the carved wooden chair. Her skirt tucked neatly around her legs and her hands folded in her lap. Her expression showed longing to reach out and touch Benjamin. It was obvious by her glassy eyes that she was making an effort not to cry. Ben sat in a matching chair across the table from her. He wasn't facing her however, but was sideways, staring into the wall. The way he was hunched over, his arms limp over the side of the chair...he would have looked asleep if his eyes weren't open.  
Marie pulled a package out from a tidy leather bag she had been holding. It was wrapped in brown parchment that smelled like fresh bread. She set it down onto the table, gently. The kind of gentle you use on a newborn baby. Ben didn't respond. She pushed it forward towards him, looking hopeful.

"I brought you your favorite..."

Realizing that he wouldn't open it on his own, she pulled at the wrapping and unfolded it until a small basket of chocolate covered strawberries was revealed. She smiled. Her voice was like melting sugar, smooth and warm.

"My god, you're so thin. Go ahead, take one. I made them myself...this morning."

Still, Benjamin didn't look at her.

"I figured you missed them..."

Ben tilted his head slightly downwards, his hair falling over his face.

_She's playing pretend. Stop hiding yourself, Marie. They need to know you. The real you. They don't have to underestimate you; you could share your gift with them. Stop being stupid...I hate it when you sink to their level._

The guard, who had been watchman at the door, announced that they had five more minutes left. Marie nodded, but seemed a bit more frantic now.

"You're not hungry? That's okay, I'll save them for later. You can have them later if you want."

Nothing came from the other side of the table.

"They been treating you well?"

Once she said it, she immediately regretted it. By the state of Ben, the answer was obvious. He had bruises on his arms from where the sedatives had been injected multiple times over. His skin was raw and dirty from sleeping on the floor. He wasn't even the same person on the inside anymore either. He had been reduced to a puddle of blonde nothing.

Marie was getting frustrated with his lack of personality. Her voice was more serious now.

"What have they been doing to you?"

_Don't you know? You're a genius too Marie._

"How often are you allowed out to walk around outside?"

_Can I still walk?_

"Why aren't you eating properly?"

_The food is poisoned. They're killing me._

"Why won't you answer me?!"

"Tell them I'm not mad!"

He didn't look at her as he said it. His face was still hidden behind a wall of hair. Marie blinked a few times.

"What?"

Ben turned his head slowly, his eyes were angry and everything about him seemed dangerous.

"Tell them I'm...not...mad."

Tears were flowing down Marie's face now; she wiped them away quickly.

"Ben I, I-"

"You think I am don't you? I'm not insane!"

The guard came over to them then. He pulled Benjamin up from the chair.

"Time's up."

Marie stood in one fast graceful motion. When she looked in Ben's eyes as he was being pulled away, nothing familiar was there. They were wild and trapped and...insane. The guard struggled against Ben's meager weight to pull him out of the room, but Ben reached out to Marie, screaming hoarsely.

"Tell them! Tell them I'm not insane Marie! Marie!! You're the only one left who can help me! Tell them! I'm a genius, Marie! Remember?"

He pleaded, pushing his way back to his sister, but in moments he was out the door and being dragged down the hall. Another guard had come to assist in his recapture. His yelling cries slowly died down until silence hit Marie's ears like a sheet of hot air. Still crying, she picked up the basked of Chocolate Covered Strawberries and left. She spoke softly to herself.

"Oh God Ben. What happened to you? What drove you to do all those...horrible...things."

Her voice had died down to a whimper by the end. There was nothing she could do for him now, he was too far gone. Too far insane to be helped, to be loved perhaps.


End file.
